Title: Carving out a Place
Year: 2009
Project Type: Large Scale Projection Art Project
Location: Healesville Memorial Hall
Materials: 10 minute Digital Work
The Carving Out a Place project was initiated by the Shire of Yarra Ranges, Mia Rappel and Andrea Werner were commissioned to project manage, facilitate and create 'Carving Out a Place' a New Media Installation for and by Indigenous Young people of the Shire. Andy and Mia spent 4 fantastic months around Healesville working with students from Worawa Aboriginal College and the Oonah Pathways group. The content was created through a series of workshops exploring the themes of Nature, The Body, Sense of Place and Self Expression. The workshops included, imagery collage, live foot and hand print painting, exploring place, shadow dance, sharing your art and Hip Hop. Within the workshops young people were constantly creating digital content through photographing, filming and sound recording. The outcome and presentation of the work was 2 incredible nights of a large scale projection onto the exterior of the Healesville Memorial Hall, accompanied by the amplified sound track. The 10 minute DVD piece ran as a loop for 2 hours each evening, illuminating the streets and surprising passers by with the beautiful 7m wide by 3m high projection. The work was accompanied by stills from the piece being back projected, filing the street facing windows of the HMH with a feast of fading and appearing images. The launch was a huge success with an accompanying exhibition of Oonah Pathways photography works and sausage sizzle, guests included the young people, teachers, family, local community, visitors and members of council. All Young People involved in the project were given a printed DVD of the final work to keep and share with their family and community.